I was just thinking recently that I hadn’t had any Tribal Fries - one of my favorite indulgent foods I’d found since I moved to Louisville - and that I ought to plan a trip to Zaytun Mediterranean Grill soon. Imagine my surprise when the intrepid fact-finders of reddit.com’s

posted a note saying that Zaytun was suddenly closed down with little more than a note in the window.

I inquired with the person who originated the thread, who goes by 65kerensky, and they informed me that there were legal notices that seemed to imply an eviction. While he did supply a transcript of the documents, I decided that I needed to see them for myself and drove over to take a look.

Those documents seem to speak for themselves, implying that the owners of Zaytun weren’t paying their rent. I followed up with a call to the circuit court, and they confirmed that they were evicted for non-payment, though they wouldn’t tell me for how long. As an interesting note, the Circuit court typically handles cases of over $5,000, and if that’s the case it would seem that Zaytun had been behind in rent for quite a while.

I’m sad to see one of my favorite places in town shut down, but I’m puzzled as to why. From what I could tell, they had just expanded in the last year, and I never saw an empty house when I was there. To the contrary, it was usually quite packed. With a restaurant that full, it seems strange that they were unable to make the bills. It was well decorated and served excellent food with a great staff - not the kind of place one would go to and think “this place looks like it’s teetering.”

It’s unfortunate that Zaytun is gone - let’s just hope that something new takes its place that serves up equally as excellent dishes.